[AT] A little time on the Ferguson TO-20

[Indiana Robinson]

I was having some problems with the gunk in the fuel tank from it
sitting a couple of years in the POs garage so I pulled the complete
sediment bowl/shut off valve out to get rid of some crud. The tank has
a lower sump area right at the outlet. I got a nice mess of crud out
of the sump and started to put it back on. I had too long of a
struggle trying to get it back on since the outlet for the fuel line
had obviously been cross threaded pretty badly. It was not the
original type (with the reserve fuel feature) anyway so I decided that
I would pick up one at the local Orchlen farm store down the road
since I had seen them there before. I won't go into what I was
mumbling as I stood there in the store looking at the empty hook...
They often have empty hooks...
I decided that I would pick up one from TSC over in Franklin IN (the
next town west). I usually go to the TSC in Greensburg IN (the next
town south east) but I knew that if the Franklin store had an empty
hook that there is another TSC in Greenwood IN about 10 miles north of
Franklin (south edge of Indy). I lucked out and the Franklin store had
one. It is actually not listed for the TO- 20 or the TO-30 and I don't
really know why not. It is listed for the Ford 9-N, 2-N and 8-N and
for the MF-35 etc. It fit perfectly and I was running again.
I have been quite pleased with this little tractor and of course I
grew up on one like it. I keep getting the feeling that this one is
pretty low hours. Everything is still pretty tight for one this old
that had been used for a lot of heavy farming.
I knew that the 3 point went up and down OK but I had never put a load
on it yet. Yesterday I put my 3 point pallet forks on it to move some
stuff, mostly scrap iron. I was pleased with the way it effortlessly
lifted the first pallet of iron that I moved to a back lot until my
scrap guy comes. The second was a lot heavier and was loaded with
stuff like a couple of engine heads, 4 truck disk rotors, about 100
feet of old tired 3/4" steel cable, a big old steering gear assembly
off of a semi and a large herd of smaller iron giblets that I am
scrapping out. The Fergie was idling at maybe 600 or 700 RPM when I
pulled the lever up and it hardly grunted as it lifted the front end
off of the ground.   :-)    I moved a little of the load to another
pallet and moved some stuff forward on that one and it stayed down
enough to haul that one out to the back lot. It's too windy to haul
steel today...   :-)
That pallet lift is more like a bale mover, not a mast type of
forklift but it is extremely handy. In a former life 98% of it used to
be a John Deere 3 bottom rope trip pull type plow. Back years ago when
I built it the parts just kind of came together just right to build
it. I made it so it would fit on the three point and it will also
mount on my old New Idea loader in place of the bucket.
I painted it green when I made it but now I guess it should be painted
Ferguson gray.
I expect this tractor to be used a lot with these forks and a couple
of simple attachments I want to make for them. It will also be used as
a drawbar tractor for raking hay and pulling hay wagons and will be
used a lot with my 5' finish mower around the barnlots etc. I will
probably use it some with a set of Ford 3 point two row cultivators I
kept from years ago and also with a set of new one row cultivators I
use in the pumpkin patch.
I'll probably have to pull that assembly out and clean that tank sump
a couple of more times before spring but I was surprised at how well
the fuel just sloshing around driving is cleaning the gunk out.

--
"farmer"

"Good clean muck never hurt nobody!!!"
Morris Moulterd


Hay and Straw Exchange (Buy it, sell it and trade it.)
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/HayandStrawExchange


Francis Robinson
Central Indiana USA
robinson46176 at gmail.com